Eco sounding

Last week the chancellor, Gordon Brown, made his first big green speech. Less than 24 hours later he excited greens when he started his budget by saying the environment was now a central pillar of the economy. So what initiatives did he announce? He encouraged bus travel for the old, but only at off peak times; he raised vehicle excise duty for a few cars by 3%; he added 1.2p/litre increase in fuel duty - from September 4; he slightly reduced VAT for the installation of low carbon technologies; he extended the landlord's energy savings allowance to cover solid wall insulation. And... that was it.

The sky's the limit

To further show that the British government leads the world in tackling climate change, it has announced that former head of British Airways Rod Eddington is to advise the transport secretary, Alistair Darling. Eddington, now a director of mining giant Rio Tinto, helped lead the aviation industry's howls against even the smallest imposition of aviation fuel taxes to offset greenhouse gas emissions, so, clearly, he's just the chap to reduce British vehicle emissions, too.

Risky business

Pity poor Margaret Beckett, whose environment department was dragooned into congratulating Brown on his "green budget", and who then had to explain to world leaders and her Derby constituents why £3m of policing, 2,000 miles of wire and acres of empty countryside was needed to defend British and international environment and development ministers against no one at all.

Game over

You could always depend on the Department of Trade and Industry to be clueless about the environment. But then it surprised everyone a few years ago by backing a solar photovoltraic power programme that was to run until 2012. So we thought. Last week, even as Blair, Brown and Beckett were welcoming leaders to their G8 environment meetings, the department pulled the plug.

Duty calls

"Paul Wolfowitz has not shown any interest in poverty reduction, environmental protection and human rights. His election as World Bank president would exacerbate the backlash against social and environmental concerns," storms the International Rivers Network. But here are Wolfowitz's collected thoughts on the environment that he shared with the US military some years ago: "Our environment deserves nothing less than the very best stewardship we can provide." Quick. Give him the job.